1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope and an endoscope apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, endoscope apparatuses have been widely used in a medical field and an industrial field. Generally, an endoscope apparatus includes an endoscope with an elongated insertion portion and a main body portion connected with the endoscope. The main body portion receives image signals from an image pickup device provided at a distal end of the insertion portion and displays an image on a monitor.
In order to reduce a number of signal lines between an endoscope and a main body portion, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-305373 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-229208, an endoscope apparatus has been proposed that time division multiplexes video signals from a scope and outputs resultant signals to a processor.
Also, conventionally, there are endoscope apparatuses that have a plurality of modes. Examples of the modes include a normal observation mode for observation performed to examine a subject and a mode for rewriting data of rewritable non-volatile memory in an endoscope.